In today’s post, we would like to share our thoughts and experience on how we initially setup and get the most out of the Free Yoast SEO Plugin for your WordPress blog.

There are actually two (2) version of the plugin the FREE and PREMIUM while the only difference is that a premium version is having an additional redirect option plus a premium support from Yoast. The average price of the plugin is around $89.00 US dollars, way too expensive for a blog starter.

The Free version of the plugin works very well for us and we been using it since on its first release, although we upgraded to a premium version but we did not literally bought it, we just won it in a raffle during our WordPress Wednesday Meetup.

We have listed below a set of instructions of our preferred Yoast settings. Take note that what we are about to setup has nothing to do in ranking your website in search results. Don’t worry, we will be sharing more of our ideas as we move on into our next series of Yoast SEO plugin topics.

INSTALLING YOAST SEO

Okay, so let’s get started! If you do not have a copy of Yoast SEO plugin yet, then grab one under WordPress Plugin Repository. It is totally free! while the easiest way to do this is.

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New
2. In the Keyword Search Box type Yoast SEO
3. Click Install and Activate the plugin

This can only be done if you are currently logged in to your WordPress Administration Dashboard.

GENERAL SETTINGS SETUP

Now we would like to configure Yoast SEO for the first time and we will set them up one-by-one.

I. GENERAL

1. Go to Yoast SEO panel in your WordPress Dashboard.

2. Click on General > Features

Turn on all the options under Features tab accordingly.

• SEO analysis
• Readability analysis
• Cornerstone content
• Text link counter
• XML sitemaps
• Ryte integration
• Admin bar menu
• Security: no advance settings for authors

3. Then click Save button

SEARCH APPEARANCE SETUP

Under this option in Yoast SEO plugin we have several of  features that we need to setup we lists them all accordingly. Carefully follow our suggested setup.

II. SEARCH APPEARANCE

1. TITLE SEPARATOR

We only suggest the first three (3) separator ( – , –,  —) among all the separators available. Our preference will be the second (–) and the third ( — ) separator keeping your titles clean and will always stay in shape.

2. KNOWLEDGE GRAPH

This is self explanatory select that best describe your blog

3. Save your settings

III. CONTENT TYPES

1. POSTS

• SHOW POSTS IN SEARCH RESULT ( set to Yes)
• TITLE TEMPLATE ( leave default option )
• META DESCRIPTION TEMPLATE ( leave default option )
• DATE IN SNIPPET PREVIEW (set to Hide )
• YOAST SEO META BOX ( set to Show )

2. PAGES

• SHOW PAGES IN SEARCH RESULT ( set to Yes )
• TITLE TEMPLATE ( leave default option )
• META DESCRIPTION TEMPLATE ( leave default option )
• DATE IN SNIPPET PREVIEW ( set to Hide )
• YOAST SEO META BOX ( set to Show )

3. Click Save changes button

IV. MEDIA

1. MEDIA AND ATTACHMENTS ( set to Yes )

2. Click Save changes

V. TAXONOMIES

1. CATEGORIES

• Show categories in search results ( set to Yes )
• Title template ( leave default option )
• Meta description template ( leave default option )
• Yoast SEO Meta Box ( set to Show )

2. TAGS

• Show tags in search results ( set to No )
• Title template ( leave default option )
• Meta description template ( leave default option )
• Yoast SEO Meta Box ( set to Show )

3. FORMAT

• Format-based archives ( set to Disabled )

4. CATEGORY URLS

• Remove the categories prefix ( set to Keep )

5. Click Save Changes

VI. ARCHIVES

1. AUTHOR ARCHIVES SETTINGS

• Author archives ( set to Disabled )

2. DATE ARCHIVES SETTINGS

• Date archives ( set to Disabled )

VII. SPECIAL PAGES

1. SEARCH PAGE

• Title template ( leave default option )

2. 404 PAGES

• Title template ( leave default option )

In our next series, we will be covering up how we utilize and take advantage of Yoast SEO plugin when writing content using our methods. Thank you so much for reading this article we hope that somehow it helped you save some time and we have explained it very well.

If you have questions with regards to our setup. Please drop your comments below.